Pelvic floor exercise gadgets for men: a guide to the different types

There are several pelvic floor exercise gadgets for men to help you do your pelvic floor exercises (aka Kegels) correctly and well. Electrical stimulation machines to get muscles working, biofeedback to show you what you are doing and phone apps to help you remember to practise! Before you spend any money let me explain how they work so you can choose the best match for you.

There are 3 types of pelvic floor exercise gadgets for men

• Stimulation units
• Biofeedback devices
• Trackers/Memory Aids

# Biofeedback devices for men

A biofeedback device shows you what you are doing with your muscles when you contract/exercise them using your own brain.  These machines pick up an electrical impulse from a special probe (in the anus) and send them to the hand-held device. It beeps and displays coloured lights to show you what your muscles are doing. You will be rewarded with green lights when you are contracting correctly, orange lights when you are relaxed.

Biofeedback is great for men who:

• have muscles grade more than Oxford Scale 2 (only a gentle squeeze) and need develoop more power
• struggle to identify your pelvic floor muscles in different positions
• learn best through visual and auditory cues
• want to ensure you are contracting correctly without using other muscles
• need to focus on relaxing fully between contractions
• should work on endurance, co-ordination and brain skills.
• like trageting more complicated tasks – skills needed for real life or your sport
• are motivated by tracking their progress with numbers
• like working with a gadget!

examples of biofeedback devices for men:

Peritone EMG biofeedback unit and Simplex EMG biofeedback unit are  the ones we have used in our clinic for many years (same device in different packaging).  Many physiotherapy departments and private clinics have these for you to use at your visit and/or to borrow.

They are effectively two parts.  You place a small single-person-use internal electrode into the back passage (anal canal). Then put your underwear back on! Link your internal device by a cable to the handheld Pelvitone or Simplex unit.  

When you contract your pelvic floor muscles their electrical activity registers on the screen. This makes the  lights change from orange to green and gives an audible beep.  

You can practise your quick maximum power squeezes seeing how high you can make the lights go. Also, practise keeping the lights green while you cough or try moving your arms or legs. There is a work/rest function which ‘counts’ the endurance holds for you and tells you your average squeeze score at the end.

Simplex devices are available for our clients to borrow from our clinic, to rent (£88/month) or buy from de Smit Medical or buy from StressNoMore & other online sellers +/- £225 (the probe included at sale is not suitable for anal use therefore you will need to also purchase a probe seperately).

# Electrical Stimulation machines for men

Electrical stimulation units are designed to be used at home to artificially stimulate the pelvic floor muscles to work. Impulses are sent from the machine directly to the pelvic floor to mimic the messages that your brain is supposed to send.

Electrical stimulation machines are useful for men who:

• really don’t know where their muscles are or how to make them work
• have very weak muscles that can only contract a few times before they fatigue (oxford scale <2)
• or muscles that can only muster a very tiny amount of strength.

how a stimulation machine helps pelvic floor training:

• the sensations (a sort of tingly feeling) created by the electrical impulses help your brain to correctly identify the location of your pelvic floor muscles.
• the machine will stimulate the muscles to work (contract). It is possible to change the settings to favour different parts of the muscle.
• you can practice joining in with the machine to learn how to contract your muscles without help
• the machine can help you to ‘hold’ a muscle contraction while you concentrate on learning to breathe and/or move at the same time
• we usually recommend that you wait until 3 months post pelvic surgery before using a stimulation machine.
• there is also a setting to calm the bladder if it is sensitive causing urgency or frequency. Read more here.

examples of electrical stimulation machines for men:

 The stimulation is delivered by a battery-operated handheld unit with wires to an internal electrode for greatest efficacy. When used for to calm the nerves to the bladder (neuromodulation) there is an alternative application with sticky pad electrodes at the ankle (this treatment is sometimes called TTNS or TENs).

The V for Men is specifically designed for men with comprehensive instructions and good customer support available from Kegel8 £139 (with VAT exemption)

# Reminder Apps for men

Pelvic floor exercise gadgets for men include phone apps to remind you to do your pelvic floor exercises, keep track of your progress, or prompt you to follow a sequence to make sure you regular perform a full range of tasks

a reminder app is great for men who:

• mean to do my pelvic floor exercises but then forget! 
• often drift off partway through practising 
• tend to do their kegels at top speed to get them done
• or over do the reps and get sore
• need reminding about the relaxation phase of each exercise
• always feel guilty that they should have done more
• like to track their performance

example of a pelvic floor tracker app for men:

NHS Squeezy App for Men.  It counts for you.  It reminds you.  It gives you a happy little chart and messages to tell you how clever you are when you do them.  All for £2.99.

other app features that men find useful:

• bladder diary – are you drinking too much or not enough?
• reminders – set the perfect timings for you
• record of your exercising – to feel pleased with yourself!
• information about how to do your squeezes

And on the Squeezy website:

• videos about how to do the exercises or change the settings
• a Directory to help you find a physio

Not sure what pelvic floor exercise gadgets YOU need?

Get clarity first

If you are not too sure how good your muscles are then before you spend ANY money on exercise gadgets or device I would highly recommend an hour spent with a specialist physiotherapist! Your appointment will be £70-100 outside London.

Our role at physiotherapy is to do an internal assessment of your pelvic floor muscles. We will check how well they are working and teach you how to get the best from them – you may not need any gadgets at all! And if you do we can help you make the best choice for your needs.

Try before you buy

We can loan you both muscle stimulation and biofeedback units to try out at home. To see how well they work for you before you consider buying your own. It is particularly important to consider an individual assessment by a specialist physiotherapist if you are at all worried that your pelvic floor muscles might be too tight rather than too weak.

Finally we can also teach you exercises , which require no equipment at all! We usually combine pelvic floor exercises with appropriate abdominal muscle work as these two areas need to work well together for best support and control of the bladder and bowel.

Please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have further questions about pelvic floor exercise gadgets for men. Do comment below – readers would love to know your experiences if you would be happy to share?

Savage, A.M (2019). Neuromuscular electrical stimulation devices. Journal of Pelvic, Obstetric & Gynaecological Physiotherapy, 125, 16-25

Savage, A.M (2021). Handheld biofeedback devices to enhance pelvic floor muscle training. Journal of Pelvic, Obstetric & Gynaecological Physiotherapy, 128, 54-57